Top Science News

September 12, 2026

Top Headlines

Sep. 12, 2026 A 10-year study of more than 6,000 adults found that popular coronary calcium scans may add little to standard heart disease risk estimates for many people. But for patients with borderline or intermediate risk, the scans could make a meaningful ...

Tiny Sound Waves Could Help Solve a Major Quantum Computing Problem

Sep. 12, 2026 Researchers at Harvard have demonstrated a way to protect quantum information using microscopic sound waves. By continuously surrounding a diamond-based qubit with mechanical vibrations, they extended its coherence time by roughly threefold. The ...

Scientists Find Ozempic May Slow Aging Itself

Sep. 12, 2026 Semaglutide helped older healthy mice live longer while improving memory, muscle function, blood sugar control, and several biological signs of aging. Its effects went beyond those seen with calorie restriction, raising the possibility that GLP-1 ...

Researchers Find a Wordle Strategy That Wins 99% of the Time

Sep. 12, 2026 Researchers at Binghamton University have developed a mathematical strategy that can solve Wordle with a 99% success rate. Instead of simply guessing words packed with common letters or choosing the most likely answer, the method uses Shannon ...

Scientists Find a Way to Break Pancreatic Cancer’s Protective Shield

Sep. 11, 2026 Researchers found that blocking IL1RAP could disrupt a powerful inflammatory network that helps pancreatic cancer survive treatment. In preclinical experiments, the approach reduced tumor-protecting cells and fibrosis while boosting the activity of ...

Mercury’s Surface Reveals a Surprisingly Fiery Past

Sep. 11, 2026 Scientists have discovered that Mercury’s surface contains far less silicon dioxide than previously thought, pointing to an unexpectedly hot volcanic past. The finding suggests ancient lava may have originated from deeper, more extensively melted ...

The Secret to Longer Life May Be Hidden in Bat DNA

Sep. 11, 2026 Long-lived bats appear to combine powerful immune defenses with unusual strategies for eliminating damaged cells, potentially helping them avoid cancer and disease for decades. Researchers hope these genetic tricks could eventually reveal new ways ...

66-million-year-old Feather in Dinosaur Poop May Reveal Why Birds Survived the Asteroid

Sep. 11, 2026 A feather discovered inside 66-million-year-old fossilized dinosaur poop may help explain why modern birds survived the asteroid catastrophe. The extinct bird it came from had more primitive ...

Too Much Light at Night May Quietly Reshape Your Heart

Sep. 11, 2026 Nighttime light exposure was linked to thicker, stiffer heart chambers and early signs of reduced heart function in a study of more than 11,000 people. The findings suggest that keeping bedrooms darker could be an overlooked strategy for protecting ...

Your Next Prescription Could Be Treating a Side Effect from the Last One

Sep. 11, 2026 A major Ontario study found 24 common medication chains in which one drug’s side effects can be mistaken for a new medical problem, leading to another prescription. Researchers say closer medication reviews, pharmacist involvement, and automated ...

Tiny Nanolaser Could Cut Computer Energy Use in Half

Sep. 11, 2026 Scientists have created an ultra-small nanolaser that could eventually allow microchips to transmit information with light instead of electricity, potentially making computers faster while cutting energy use roughly in half. Thousands of the lasers ...

Scientists Just Made Quantum Computer Operations 1,000 Times Faster

Sep. 11, 2026 Researchers have found a way to perform certain quantum operations more than 1,000 times faster, cutting thousands of repeated control cycles down to just one. The advance could reduce errors and bring reliable, fault-tolerant quantum computers ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:34am EDT

Wasps Are Disappearing This Summer, and Scientists Are Worried

Sep. 11, 2026 Britain’s wasps have become mysteriously scarce this summer, and scientists suspect an unusual combination of temperature swings, heatwaves, and food shortages may be responsible. Even the wasps ...

Physicists Just Found a Tiny Glitch in Time Itself

Sep. 11, 2026 Unconventional quantum theories may imply that time itself has a tiny fundamental uncertainty, placing an ultimate limit on how precisely any clock could measure it. The effect is far beyond current ...

Scientists Discover the Human Heart Can Regrow Muscle After a Heart Attack

Sep. 10, 2026 Researchers have shown for the first time that human heart muscle cells can regrow after a heart attack. The finding overturns the idea that damaged areas of the heart are completely incapable of ...

The Moon May Have Formed Intact Just Hours After a Giant Collision

Sep. 10, 2026 Scientists have discovered that the Moon-forming collision may have depended heavily on how hot and physically strong early Earth and Theia were. New simulations found that some impacts create the ...

UCLA Scientists Turn Cord Blood Into Powerful Cancer-Fighting T Cells

Sep. 10, 2026 UCLA researchers developed ready-made cancer-fighting T cells from cord blood stem cells that can attack solid tumors through two separate detection systems. In mice, a single dose controlled cancer ...

Scientists Capture Two DNA Strands Zipping Together for the First Time

Sep. 10, 2026 Scientists have directly observed how two negatively charged DNA molecules can pair up despite normally repelling each other. Positively charged metal ions appear to bridge the gap, helping matching ...

DNA Solves the Mystery of a Body Found in the Arctic in 1859

Sep. 10, 2026 Scientists have used DNA from living descendants to identify four more members of the doomed Franklin expedition, including Harry Peglar, whose identity had remained uncertain for 166 years. The ...

Scientists Create Brilliant White Material Without a Drop of White Pigment

Sep. 10, 2026 Researchers have created a foam-based material that produces intense whiteness and water repellency without titanium dioxide pigments or PFAS chemicals. Inspired by natural structures in snow, ...

Archaeologists Find a 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Tomb Before It’s Too Late

Sep. 10, 2026 While clearing debris to protect ancient Egyptian tombs from flash floods, researchers near Luxor stumbled upon an unknown 3,000-year-old tomb. Its remarkably preserved paintings depict an official ...

Ancient Teeth Reveal Humans Were Getting High 25,000 Years Ago

Sep. 10, 2026 Ancient human remains from Sulawesi suggest people were habitually using the psychoactive betel nut as far back as 25,000 years ago. Researchers found both unusual tooth wear and traces of arecoline, ...

Devil’s Arrows: Ancient Builders Hauled 55,000-Pound Stones 11 Miles for Britain’s Tallest Stone Row

Sep. 9, 2026 Britain’s towering Devil’s Arrows were built from 25-tonne stones hauled at least 18 kilometers from Brimham Rocks around 4,000 years ago. The discovery reveals an astonishing feat of prehistoric ...

Chinese Scientists Find a Hidden Atomic Structure That Unlocks Methane

Sep. 9, 2026 Scientists found that a tiny atomic structure that forms on nickel oxide during methane conversion is more effective than the metallic nickel long believed to drive the reaction. The discovery ...

“Parachute Science” Is Failing the Tropics, Home to More Than 80% of Insect Species

Sep. 9, 2026 Insects quietly hold much of the natural world together, yet conservation efforts are overlooking the tropical regions where more than 80 percent of insect species live. Monash University researchers ...

Ozempic and Wegovy Linked to Nearly 40% Fewer Asthma Attacks

Sep. 9, 2026 Semaglutide, the drug found in Ozempic and Wegovy, was linked to nearly 40% fewer asthma attacks in a large real-world study. It was also associated with about 20% fewer COPD flare-ups. Researchers ...

The American “cheetah” Wasn’t a Cheetah at All

Sep. 8, 2026 The extinct “American cheetah” was not really a cheetah at all, but a puma relative with an unexpectedly flexible lifestyle. Fossils from the Yukon suggest northern populations survived partly by ...

Indonesia’s Most Dangerous Fires Are Burning Underground

Sep. 6, 2026 Indonesia’s dangerous peat fires are surging early in the 2026 fire season as a strengthening El Niño and severe drought dry out wetlands that can burn underground for months. These slow ...

Scientists Reveal the Hidden Instructions That Build the Human Brain

Sep. 4, 2026 UCLA researchers have discovered two powerful influences that help guide how the human brain forms before birth. Radial glia, stem cells responsible for producing much of the cerebral cortex, change ...

Your Personality May Be More Genetic Than Scientists Realized

Sep. 8, 2026 More than 1,200 genetic variants have been linked to the Big Five personality traits, and many of the same variants are also associated with health, longevity, careers, income, and everyday habits. ...

Scientists Observe Einstein’s Gravity in the Quantum World for the First Time

Sep. 8, 2026 Physicists have directly observed a long-predicted quantum effect of gravity, putting one of Einstein’s foundational ideas to a striking new test. Using ultracold atoms, researchers split an ...

Life Uses 4 DNA Letters. Scientists Just Made 8 Work

Sep. 5, 2026 Researchers at UC San Diego have demonstrated that a key cellular enzyme can accurately read an eight-letter genetic alphabet, doubling the four letters used by all known life on Earth. Detailed ...

NASA Scientists Discover a Giant 10-Sided Pattern on Saturn

Sep. 3, 2026 A huge 10-sided atmospheric pattern has appeared around Saturn’s south pole, giving the planet a surprising counterpart to its famous northern hexagon. Hubble data suggest the strange decagon only ...

Scientists Discover a Bizarre “devil Flower” Hidden in Thailand

Sep. 3, 2026 Scientists have discovered a strange black “devil flower” in Thailand that lives mostly underground, steals nutrients from fungi, and looks strikingly unlike a typical plant. The newly named ...

AI Can Now Control Fusion Plasma Faster Than Humans Can React

Sep. 6, 2026 Princeton researchers have tested an AI system that can monitor and control fusion plasma in milliseconds, reacting far faster than a human operator. In one experiment, it predicted a damaging ...

Extreme Drought Now Covers 44% of Puerto Rico

Sep. 4, 2026 Puerto Rico’s normally rainy season has instead brought a severe and fast-growing drought. By August 25, three-quarters of the territory was in at least moderate drought, with extreme drought ...

Astronomers Detect Ancient Hydrogen Signal That Could Help Map the Universe

Sep. 8, 2026 Astronomers have detected an exceptionally faint hydrogen radio signal from billions of light-years away using South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope. Instead of finding galaxies one at a time, the ...

Dark Matter Detector Finds a Strange Signal Scientists Can’t Yet Explain

Sep. 4, 2026 The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment has detected a rare particle interaction that looks unusually difficult to explain as ordinary background noise and appeared where dark matter might be expected. Scientists ...

September Brings a Dazzling Venus and a Glowing Harvest Moon

Sep. 3, 2026 September’s sky features brilliant Venus, the Milky Way’s hazy center, and the seasonal turning point of the equinox. The month ends with a glowing Harvest Moon rising near Saturn and faint ...

The Universe Has Plenty of Hydrogen. So Why Is Star Formation Collapsing?

Sep. 3, 2026 Star formation across the universe has fallen dramatically over the past 4.5 billion years, but astronomers have uncovered a surprising twist: the supply of neutral hydrogen, a key ingredient for ...

Scientists Discover Why Snake Embryos Twist Into Spirals

Sep. 1, 2026 Snake embryos begin life curled into a distinctive right-handed spiral, and scientists may finally know why. Their bodies grow faster than their guts, creating a tether that forces the lengthening ...

Early Statin Use Linked to 15% Lower Dementia Risk

Sep. 8, 2026 Starting statins soon after a type 2 diabetes diagnosis may do more than protect the heart. In a nationwide Danish study of more than 132,000 people, those who began statin treatment within a year of ...